Psalm 19/Participant Analysis/Set
From Psalms: Layer by Layer
There are four participants/characters in Psalm 19:
| David |
| David (v. 1) |
| Your servant (vv. 12, 14) |
| YHWH |
| YHWH (vv. 8-10, 15) |
| God (v. 2) |
| My rock and my redeemer (v. 15) |
| YHWH's instruction |
| YHWH's instruction (v. 8a) |
| YHWH's testimony (v. 8b) |
| YHWH's commandments (v. 9a) |
| YHWH's command (v. 9b) |
| Fearing YHWH (v. 10a) |
| YHWH's rules (v. 10b) |
| Sky |
| sky (vv. 2a, 7) |
| firmament (v. 2b) |
| Sun |
| the sun (v. 5c) |
| Sins |
| Mistakes (v. 13a) |
| Hidden sins (v. 13b) |
| Presumptuous sins (v. 14a) |
Profile Notes
- David refers to himself twice as "your servant" (עבדך) (vv. 12a, 14a), which is a polite form of self-reference used when speaking to a superior (cf. HALOT). The term creates a connection to the superscription of the previous psalm, where David is called "YHWH's servant" (עבד יהוה) (for more on connections between Ps 18 and Ps 19, see Hossfeld and Zenger 1993, 130).
- YHWH is called by the more general term "God" (אל) in the first half of the psalm, which focuses on his role as the universal creator whose glory is revealed to all people (cf. אלהים in Gen 1), and by his name "YHWH" (יהוה) in the second half of the psalm (7 times), which focuses on the covenant instruction of YHWH as the God of Israel in particular (cf. Cassuto 1941, lectures 2-3).
- Sins are regarded as a participant here, because "presumptuous sins" are the subject of the verb "rule" in v. 14, i.e., they are personified as a volitional agent. On the meaning of each of these different words for sin, see Lexical Semantics.
- The sky (vv. 2a, 7a), also referred to by the more specific term, "the firmament" (v. 2b) (cf. Gen 1:8), probably includes "everything in the heavens (a metonymy of subject)—primarily the sun, moon, clouds, stars, and planets" (Ross 2011, 472). The sky is also referred to metonymically as "day after day" and "night after night" (v. 3), i.e., it is the movement of day-to-day as seen within the sky that pours out speech, declaring God’s honor.
- In v. 5c, the topic shifts to one particular part of "the sky", i.e., the sun, who is personified as a happy bridegroom and as a warrior (a warrior-poet, like David?) who runs each day from one edge of the sky to the other.